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Hello plant people how are you guys doing today if you're new around here my name is Ashley and I'm a soil scientist and on this channel
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I like to take that science and apply to all things plants both indoors and outside and in today's video
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We're looking at video four of the plantness series and in today's video we're talking about calcium
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Let me know in the comments down below what you think calcium is is it a primary a secondary or a micro nutrient? I
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I expect this to confuse some of you. I actually expect some of you to get this wrong
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Only because there's a lot of misinformation about how valuable calcium is in our soil systems
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or in just our plant systems in general. While I wait for you to answer, I will do a shameless plug again about getting my platters
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They are different from one another. One's for houseplants, one's for gardeners
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Like I said, both of them are different. There is a PDF version for those of you that use GoodNotes or want to print
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or determine how many pages of each one you want. But these are a hundred pages
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They have a full year's worth of week planners in the back
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Again, each one is different between the two. And yeah, you can get these on Amazon
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I will leave the links down below. Okay, so I'm going to check out your answers
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but it is a secondary nutrient, meaning it is a macronutrient, meaning it is very crucial to plants
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But it's actually not a macro in the sense that it needs a lot. It's a secondary
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So it's not a primary it's a secondary so it is below a huge plethora of other ones
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We have not yet talked about except for nitrogen and therefore it's not needed in as high quantities as a primary
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But it's not needed in less quantity like a micronutrient. So calcium is probably the
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the coolest nutrient in my mind. I think it just like the most sci out of all 17 to be honest with you And there so much cutting edge information that we learning over time that just like literally blows my mind so the boring thing it does is it helps with cell structure from the fruits the
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flowers the leaves the shoots the roots it helps make tougher walls kind of like
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it does for our bones but honestly the part that fascinates me the most is the
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fact that calcium actually moves and mobilizes in the plant to areas under extreme stress or danger
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Literally. So if you have one of those sensitivity plants for example and you run your hand across it
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calcium is what is sending the signal. It's literally rushing to that area of the plant and
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saying close like close now same thing if we cut a plant for cuttings if we trim a plant if the
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plant is under extreme sun stress pesticide stress you name it the calcium is literally rushing to
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that area and it's kind of cool because they've actually studied this under different luminescence
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and microscopes to see how calcium mobilizes within the plant and it's literally the coolest
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footage you could ever watch and I just find it so weird I don't know I have to
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let me in the comments down below if I'm just like a crazy plant person that literally just love science like so much but honestly I just think that's just
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the neatest thing and that's actually where the Tel Aviv plant study came from
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so I made this video like the longest time ago where I talked about the Tel
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Aviv plant study where they said plants scream and the screaming was actually
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mobilization of calcium with the plants it just kind of made like this ultrasound sonic sound when they were recording it but anyways it's just
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really cool stuff and honestly it's something we don't fully understand yet
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so you know ten years down the road this video could be outdated and make no sense so it is xylem mobile meaning it moves via the xylem and once it kind of put into place or area within the plant it stays there that means with or besides its reaction and
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mobility during stress but otherwise it stays in place and that means that if there's a deficiency
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or toxicity of calcium in the system it's going to show up in the new growth more so than the old
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growth. This is also why blossom and rot is really commonly referred to as a calcium issue
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It's because it will show up in fruiting bodies during the fruiting development of the plant. Now
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if you have blossom and rot issues, I highly suggest you actually check the soil pH first
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because pH is probably the most limiting factor when it comes to calcium uptake. But after you've
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tested the soil pH and you've noticed that it is low, there are ways to remedy this, not eggshells
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or Epsom salts or anything like that. There's real ways to remedy a lack of calcium in a soil system
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However, I'm just going to say this straight up. It's probably unlikely you have a soil deficiency
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only because, only because quite honestly, North American soils have a ton of calcium
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An overabundance of calcium to be totally honest with you So I actually wouldn't worry about it too too much you potting soil people will get into a little bit later the house plant folk
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But if you're growing in the ground, it's pretty unlikely you're gonna have a calcium deficiency
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It's likely a pH issue first and foremost so there are some mechanisms in which your calcium can be lost from the system the number one being
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runoff and leaching because it is water soluble. It's either gonna go out of the root zone
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or just kind of over top and out of the root zone. And then the second two ways are absorption
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So that's either by soil microorganisms or via clay particulates within the soil
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So a really great way to introduce calcium into your soil is gypsum lime both hydrated lime and burnt lime actually And so adding that I did a whole video on clay soil Adding that to a clay soil is incredibly
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valuable in many respects, one of which is actually releasing that calcium from the substrate
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of the soil and putting it into the plant or bioavailable form for the plant. I mean
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And for the potting soil people, I did do a potting soil pH video where I discussed how
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every potting soil, if you really want to make it be an awesome potting soil
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Besides all the DIY potting soil recipes out there that talk about the, talk about adding
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coconut quire and all these really fancy compost and stuff, probably lime is more important
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Lime is more important when adding to potting soil. So if you want more information on adding lime to potting soil to help introduce that
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calcium and help alter your ph then be sure to check out that video but that's all i have for
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you guys today on calcium i know it's short i'm i'm assuming you guys expected more on calcium
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but honestly it's it's really abundant in our soils the number one reason for deficiency
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is ph um and if there is a deficiency and you've tested for a deficiency and deficiency shows up
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the pH is fine then it's a likely time to add like a gypsum or line not eggshells
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not Epsom salt I'm not saying that eggs don't have calcium of course they do
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but you need a lot like a ton of it I don't think you guys realize how much
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you needing the calcium within an eggshell I mean there is some but by
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weight it's not a huge portion and there's no guarantee that it is yet
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bioavailable or not bind or bound into the suspension of the eggshell itself I
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want to thank you guys so much for tuning into today's today's plan this
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episode if you enjoyed it be sure to give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe
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button if you want to join our crew let me know in the comments down below what
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you learned today and I will talk to you guys next time bye
